How Will AI Affect Women Workers? What Employers Should Know

Key Takeaways 

• Jobs that women commonly hold have slightly more exposure to AI disruption than the jobs men commonly hold. 
• Generally, office-type jobs have greater exposure to AI disruption than hands-on types of roles.
• Companies should invest in training and upskilling for AI tools, and employees should take advantage of the benefits AI tools have to offer. 

Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping work at an unprecedented pace. We wanted to know: How will that transformation impact women workers compared to their male counterparts? And what can employers do to help minimize the disruption from GenAI for all workers? 

Your Gender Doesn’t Impact Your Exposure to GenAI. Your Job Does

Research by Indeed Hiring Lab in 2023, which leveraged Indeed U.S. job postings, found that 73% of women work in jobs that have moderate or high exposure to GenAI, compared to 68% of men.

Whether a given worker identifies as a man or woman has no impact on their potential exposure to GenAI. It’s what they do for work that ultimately determines their level of exposure. And while women and men both work in a wide variety of jobs with varying levels of potential exposure to GenAI, women are slightly more likely than men to work in the types of stereotypically “white collar” jobs that GenAI is more poised to disrupt. Almost a third (32%) of men work in jobs with the lowest potential GenAI exposure, compared to only about a quarter (27%) of women — which helps explain the small differences in overall exposure.

“As we look at the places where generative AI is most likely to have an impact, we see that it’s likely to be more useful and therefore more disruptive in those white-collar fields,” says Hannah Calhoon, Indeed’s Head of AI Innovation.  

As a 2024 Hiring Lab report points out, that’s because GenAI is good at jobs that require more office worker–type tasks but less useful for jobs that require more hands-on tasks, noting that “the necessity of manual, hands-on execution of a given skill plays an outsized role in helping determine its ultimate likelihood of GenAI replacement.” 

The 2024 report found that bus drivers, cooks and nurses were less likely to be exposed to GenAI. Accounting, marketing and healthcare administrative support occupations were more likely to be disrupted by GenAI. 

It’s important to note, however, that AI isn’t completely replacing all people in those exposed roles. And working with AI doesn’t have to mean building the AI — just adopting it to work more efficiently and strategically. 

“I think there is a huge opportunity for women to be driving AI innovation in their respective industries and in their respective roles,” Calhoon says. “Even if those roles are not deeply technical.” 

Harnessing AI for Good in the Face of Disruption

As AI reshapes roles and industries, employers have a critical opportunity to use it not just as a driver of change, but as a tool to support and stabilize their workforce. Here’s how organizations can use AI to counter AI-instigated impacts and transitions for all workers. 

1. Use AI to support fairer hiring practices

Skills-first hiring focuses on a job candidate’s capabilities rather than their pedigree, which helps level the playing field for historically underrepresented groups. As automation and AI reshape the job market, it’s more important than ever to focus on actual abilities rather than previous job titles — and AI can support those practices.  

“Human bias can sneak into the hiring process in many ways,” Calhoon says. Focusing on skills rather than job titles or university degrees widens the potential talent pool. Seventy million Americans — half the U.S. workforce — are STARs, or “skilled through alternative routes,” meaning they built skills through military service, workforce training programs and/or on-the-job experience instead of through a four-year degree. 

Even as AI reshapes what skills employees need, employers can use GenAI to revise their job listings to focus more on skills instead of degrees. Indeed’s AI Job Description Generator can cut the time it takes to write a listing from two hours to a few minutes. That makes it easier for employers to match candidates with open roles, and to find matches that are outside their traditional talent pools. GenAI is also capable of reading between the lines to make better matches. 

2. Use AI to help narrow the gender pay gap

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the fourth quarter of 2024, women in full-time positions earned a median weekly earnings of $1,083, only 83.2% of what men earned. Women earn less than men in more than 90% of all occupations, and the gender pay gap is even bigger for women of color and women with disabilities. Companies could use AI tools to more swiftly analyze payroll for biases based on gender or other characteristics and use the data to rectify any pay gaps. 

For their part, employees can use AI as a personal career coach to aid them in shifting their career path, negotiating pay and promoting themselves. 

3. Help your workforce develop AI skills

Women’s representation in AI engineering roles is growing, but men are still more highly represented in a variety of AI fields. There’s a gender gap among those who use AI tools as well: One report found that 50% of men have used GenAI over the previous 12 months, compared to just 37% of women.

That’s a missed opportunity for women. “You don’t have to be a deep AI expert to leverage AI for your career and take advantage of the new tools it offers,” Calhoon says. 

Calhoon urges companies to provide training and upskilling on AI tools to the entire workforce. “If you are rolling out a new set of AI tools inside of your company, you want to make sure that all of your talent has those opportunities,” she says. 

As AI continues to reshape the world of work, everyone will face both challenges and opportunities. Proactive efforts — from reskilling initiatives to equitable hiring and pay to giving people access to these new tools in the first place — will be crucial in ensuring that AI is an engine for progress instead of a source of greater disparity.

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Related links:

AI in Hiring: 5 Ways Talent Leaders Can Overcome Fear and Embrace Change
AI, Talent Shortages and the Future of Work: Insights From Indeed’s CEO
Indeed Hiring Lab Report: Labor Market Trends to Watch in 2025
Hiring Lab & World Economic Forum Joint Research Shows How Humans Will Remain an Essential Part of the Global Workforce as AI Evolves